Founded in 2003 by three close friends Denis McCarthy, Ger McCarthy & John O’Connell in Union Hall, West Cork, Ireland; West Cork Distillers was inspired by the proud history of artisan food & beverage production in Cork. The trio had some experience of this in their previous occupations, as Ger & Denis were deep sea trawlermen and John was a research & development scientist for some large blue chip food & beverage companies.
WCD’s first forays into distillation weren’t with whiskey, however, but with lighter brown spirits. In 2007, the trio made Dromberg by fortifying the fermentation of sugarbeet and malt, before infusing oak shavings using a method developed by O’Connell in Dennis McCarthy’s garage in Union Hall. Lough Hyne followed this up, which was made by the same process but instead fortified up to 30 per cent alcohol, and matured with Irish and Bourbon cask oak.
It wasn’t long, however, before West Cork Distillers had expanded upon its popular and delightfully unconventional early efforts to establish an impressive range of Irish whiskies, including West Cork 10 Year Old Single Malt; West Cork Original and the rather brilliant The Pogues Whiskey, a collaboration with the eponymous punk-folk band. Each of these is made with Irish grown grain and spring water and barley malted exclusively by WCD (the only Irish distillery to malt all of its own barley), before being triple distilled in pot stills, which are only half filled to allow for maximum copper-spirit vapour interaction.
West Cork Distillers were previously based at the 10,000 sq ft West Cork Bottling plant in Skibbereen, which was leased after turnover hit €3.5m in 2013. After investing €500,000 in equipment in this former Heineken-operated plant, the success was obviously of such speed and consistency that by 2016, the WCD moved to its current site of operation. It cost around €1.5 million for the former fish-processing plant on Skibbereen’s Marsh Road, which was bestowed with the no-nonsense name ‘West Cork Distillers’, and is one of the two independent distilleries in Ireland.